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Lucky Had A Visitor

One of the more recent arrivals in our program is Lucky, a significantly oversized sable-and-white Sheltie with an incredible attitude and great personality. Lucky’s biggest negative point is his barkiness, but he barks mostly out of the sheer joy of being alive and seeing people he likes.

Lucky came to us about three weeks ago (while I was out of town on a business trip) because his mom has some health problems that made it infeasible for her to care for him the way he deserves. When I got back from my trip, Lucky let me know in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t sure I belonged here…he was going to be sure that Barbara was protected! But he soon realized that I do belong here and we’ve become fast friends. He’s about the size of Chad and Jeremy (about whose successful adoption we’ll write soon) — in other words, about the size of a medium-sized Collie. He’s a very sweet guy, playful with us and flirty with the many girls we’ve got around right now, and a really lovely boy all around.

This afternoon, we got a phone call from his mom asking if we thought it would confuse Lucky if she came around to visit him for a short while. We thought about it for a couple of minutes and decided that it would probably be OK, so we agreed on a 4PM visit. She brought her adult son with her and Lucky was delighted to see them both. Barbara was with them when Lucky came into the room and told me that he made all sorts of happy noises and rubbed his head on his mom’s legs, but then ran over to Barbara as if to reassure her that he loves her, too!

They stayed about a half-hour, and Lucky was really playful with me and with them while they were here. When they left, he acted like he would have liked to go with his former mom, but didn’t resist when I locked the door behind them and led him upstairs to have his dinner. He was clearly happy to see his former mom again, but he wasn’t all depressed when he didn’t get to leave with her. I think he knows that he belongs with us for now, but he was very happy to know that she still loves him, too.

We wouldn’t allow this kind of visit with all of the rescue Shelties we get. Some times, we believe that they would be really depressed, or that they would frantically try to leave with their former owners. But, in this case, we thought it’d be OK and it was.

Lucky’s a lucky boy to have had a mom who loved him enough to be sure he got into our program when she was no longer able to care for him…and who still loves him and cares what is going on with him.

2 comments to Lucky Had A Visitor

It sounds like Lucky might be taller than Jerry Lee, who is just over 19″. His personality sounds similar to Jerry’s as well.

As for our small pack – Misty had her teeth cleaned on Monday. She sailed through it without any noticeable negative side effects (yay!). We had blood work done about a week before her dental, which is especially good because her thyroid level came back very low at just over 1. She had been in for her yearly checkup in February, I thought thyroid was something that was checked routinely then (but I guess not), which is why I didn’t ask them to check it. Her weight has been inching up, it’s not bad but hers, like mine, should be inching the other way, and I know weight gain can be a symptom of low thyroid. She is on thyroxine now, and we’ll have her thyroid level rechecked in three months.

Being the ever good girl that she is she takes her med like a real trooper, scarfs it right out of my hand with about four pieces of kibble (that are taken from her food dish).

She is such a happy dog, and of course beautiful.

Jerry missed her so much the entire time she was gone he didn’t even bark when the phone rang. He stayed especially close to me the whole day, and on a few occasions I caught him staring at the door to the garage, the place he last saw her. When I brought her home that evening he rushed into the garage to greet us even though he knows he’s not supposed to rush the garage door. Once we got inside Jerry was bouncing and barking, very happy to have Misty back home. Misty of course wasn’t quite up to playing at that point, but she didn’t snap or growl at him.

They hardly ever sleep side by side or play together without a person being involved, but they hardly ever squabble (I honestly can’t remember the last time they argued) and you can tell that they are very fond of each other.

Kim and Dan, thanks so much for the update on Misty. As you know, we worry about all of our former kids and love getting news about how they’re doing. I’m so glad that she’s with you guys (including Jerry Lee!). You’re the perfect family for her and she’s a very lucky girl to have found you.